Five Ways to Boost the Value of Your Home

With mortgage rates at a steal these days, there are many people in the market to buy a new home. Whether it is their first home or their tenth home, they are going to be looking for something that catches their eye and looks like it has been cared for and maintained over the years. As such, here are some things you can do to your home if you want to get it ready to put on the market.

Replace the Front Door
One of the first things a potential buyer is going to see is your front door. If it is wooden or simply weathered and worn, it will not make a good first impression. Replace your entry door with a new steel door to give the sense of newness and security to your home. You can get midrange steel doors for about $1200 but you will recoup about 130% of that cost with that simple improvement.

Renovate the Attic
By making the attic into another room, you automatically add a significant amount to your home’s value. It may take about $49,000 to convert the attic into a bedroom or some other type of room, but you will recoup most of that cost by adding that value to your home.

Add a Deck
A wooden deck is a great place to enjoy the spring and autumn breeze or just cool off in the summer months. It can also add about $10,000 to the value of your home. You will probably spend about that much building the deck, depending on its size and quality, but it will help your home sell faster and give it more appeal to potential buyers.

Finish the Basement
It’s hard to sell a home these days with an unfinished basement. Depending on the size of your home and the type of work your basement needs, you could spend about $62,000 finishing your basement and making it into another living area. You may not recoup that much when you sell the home, but making it more appealing and helping it sell faster will save you money in the long run.

Replace the Roof
If you have had your home for many years and you have never replaced the roof, it might be a good time to do it before placing it on the market. Replacing your roof will not only make your home more appealing to buyers, but it will also help ensure that your home is up to code and there are no major leaks in the roof that will cause the home to fail inspection. It’s better to have it fixed before buyers look at it instead of waiting until it fails inspection because then you will be trying to fix it in a hurry and making bad financial decisions along the way.